Iran locates wreckage of crashed passenger plane

Passenger plane went down Sunday in Iran's Isfahan province killing all 66 people aboard

TEHRAN (AA) - The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) says it has found the location of a passenger plane that crashed Sunday -- killing all 66 people aboard -- in a mountainous region of Isfahan province.

Morteza Salimi, the IRCS official in charge of relief-and-rescue operations, confirmed that the crash site had been located, Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday.

In a press statement, IRCS spokesman Ramezan Sharif confirmed that helicopters had spotted the wreckage of the ill-fated plane.

On Sunday, an Iran Aseman Airlines passenger plane flying from Tehran to the southwestern city of Yasuj went down in the Mount Dena region of Isfahan’s Semirom district.

Iran has suffered a string of aviation disasters in recent years, due in part to its aging aircraft fleet, which it has struggled to modernize in the face of U.S. sanctions.